Dilators are widely used in medical procedures to gain access to body cavities by dilating tissue and formed a working channel therethrough for the insertion of instruments and other materials. The use of dilators and access ports has become more common as they provide minimally invasive techniques for establishing a portal for a number of procedures.
In a typical procedure, a guidewire is inserted into the body, and then a dilator is pushed through the tissue over the guidewire to dilate the tissue. The dilator can then be used as a working channel through the tissue for accessing a surgical site. Various other types of devices can then be inserted through the dilator, including needles to anchor to bone. One such device is a Jamshidi needle, that is a long, hollow needle having a cutting edge on one end and a handle and syringe attachment on the other end to remove a sample of tissue from bone marrow. While effective, there can be many disadvantages to these types of techniques. Specifically, there is a larger number of steps required to access the body, and ultimately bone, with various devices being inserted through tissue and into the body separately.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods and devices for providing access into a body cavity, and in particular for inserting a guidewire into the body and/or into bone.